HIST 205 Lecture Notes - Lecture 9: Thomas Easton, Ironmongery, Threnody
Document Summary
The german strategy in august 1914 had been planned long in advance by count alfred von schlieffen, Once france was defeated, germany and austria-hungary could concentrate their forces against the. Quite unexpectedly, however, the belgians put up a gallant resistance, and the german attack was stalled long enough to upset the timetable. The british were able to land troops in europe, and the war degenerated into a struggle for position that was characterized by trench warfare. New weapons such as the machine gun, the tank, and barbed wire eliminated thousands of men as attacks failed and comrades were left to die in the region between the tre(cid:374)(cid:272)hes (cid:272)alled (cid:862)(cid:374)o (cid:373)a(cid:374)(cid:859)s la(cid:374)d. (cid:863) The following accounts of soldiers testify to the horrors of ceaseless shelling and destruction. The battle of verdun in 1916 raged for ten months, resulting in a combined total of about one million casualties.
